PARIS - Just days ahead of Thursday’s big Festival de Cannes selection announcement, organizers revealed a sneak preview of this year’s fest with the list of Cinefondation titles and short films competition.

The festival has chosen 15 films from the more than 1,700 submissions from 320 film schools from all over the world for the Cinefondation selection.

Two titles from the U.S. were selected, including Meryl O’Connor’s The Ballad of Finn + Yeti from UCLA and Matthew James Reilly’s Abigail from NYU. Also vying for jury president Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s affections will be entries from Argentina, Israel, the U.K., Cuba, Italy, Russia, Romania, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Japan and, for the first time ever, Lebanon.

In the short films category, this year’s selection will have a new beat with French rapper Mohamed Bourokba, aka Hamé,from popular hip hop group La Rumeur selected for his Ce Chemin Devant Moi. Ten films were selected from the 4,500 shorts submitted, including entries from Syria and Puerto Rico for the first time. Grainger David will represent the U.S. with The Chair.

Fest toppers Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux will announce the full Festival de Cannes selection at a press conference in Paris on Thursday, April 19.